The thrilling extra-inning matchup where the Dodgers defeat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 attracted a total 51M watchers across the US, Canada, and Japanese territories. MLB announced this is the most-watched Fall Classic finale since the 1991 showdown between the Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33 million audience members on Fox channels, Fox Deportes and their streaming platforms. Per Nielsen, it was the second highest-rated broadcast of the week.
It also stands as the most-watched World Series game after the 2017 final game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which averaged 29.07 million. This marks a 16% increase over the last finale between the Washington Nationals and Astros, which attracted 23.19M.
In the weekly rankings, Game 6 ranked 4th, Game 4 was 7th, Game 5 was 8th, and the third game landed in 13th position.
International Audience Figures
In the Canadian market, the climactic game averaged 11.6M viewers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports. This made it the most-watched English-language program in Canada after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the final game began at 9 PM local time, it attracted 12 million. This came after last Friday’s sixth game – where World Series Most Valuable Player Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up one run in six innings – drew over 13 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic game on a single network in the country.
Overall Totals and Trends
The entire seven-match series averaged 15.71M audience members on the Fox network, a two percent rise from last year’s Dodgers-Yankees series. This marks the first time after 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has recorded viewership growth for two consecutive years.
Including the Game 1 telecast on the Univision network, the complete American viewership reached 16.1M. The total Fall Classic average in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1M in the Canadian market.
The full playoffs on Fox, FS1 and FS2 recorded 8.09M watchers, an 8% increase over last year and the network’s best playoff ratings after 2017.
Major League Baseball announced that the World Series was televised in 203 countries and territories by 44 media partners in sixteen various languages.
